Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!think!ephraim
From: ephraim@think.COM (Ephraim Vishniac)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Shareware fees for overseas
Message-ID: <29711@think.UUCP>
Date: 26 Oct 88 14:02:48 GMT
References: <530@tank.uchicago.edu>
Sender: news@think.UUCP
Reply-To: ephraim@vidar.think.com.UUCP (Ephraim Vishniac)
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
Lines: 35

In article <530@tank.uchicago.edu> gsbrob1@apcvxa.uchicago.edu writes:

>Here's the scenario: I've got a nice shareware product, and I'd like
>to send the author the SW fee he's asking ($10).  But he lives in
>Australia.  How can I send him the fee, other than 1)Sending cash,
>which is risky, 2) Sending him one of my personal checks, which would
>leave him with about nothing once he pays the cashing fees at his
>end, 3) Getting an int'l money order, which I think would about
>double my costs?

>Any ideas?

>Robert 
>gsbrob1@apcvxa.uchicago.edu
>ra_robert@gsbacd.uchicago.edu

As a small-time shareware author, here's what I think you ought to do.

For one, you could share the overhead of buying an international money
order by finding a few other people who use the same software and
pursuading them to chip in on a joint payment.  The same idea applies
to sending a personal check.

Alternatively, you could send something of comparable value, a couple
disks full of recent US shareware or PD programs.

Finally, you could just donate the money to a charitable organization
and send the shareware author a nice letter explaining what you've
done and why.

Ephraim Vishniac					  ephraim@think.com
Thinking Machines Corporation / 245 First Street / Cambridge, MA 02142-1214

     On two occasions I have been asked, "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put
     into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?"